Domestic stocks ended with steep losses amid broad based selling pressure in index pivotals. After opening lower, key indices extended losses and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. Indices came off day's low in early afternoon trade. Benchmarks traded near day's low in mid-afternoon trade. Indices slumped in late trade as selling pressure intensified.
The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 310.51 points or 0.87% to 35,498.44. The index hit high of 35,912.44 and low of 35,470.76 in intraday trade.
The Nifty 50 index fell 83.45 points or 0.78% to 10,640.95. The index hit high of 10,759.90 and low of 10,628.40 in intraday trade.
The market exhibited cautious sentiment fearing an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Thursday's Pulwama terror attack. The devastating terror attack last week in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir took lives of at least 40 CRPF personnel.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.04%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.01%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 879 shares rose and 1676 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.
Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the S&P BSE Energy index (down 1.38%), the S&P BSE FMCG index (down 1.36%), the S&P BSE Consumer Durables index (down 1.39%) underperformed the Sensex. The S&P BSE Telecom index (up 0.88%), the S&P BSE Realty index (up 0.62%), the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (down 0.28%) outperformed the Sensex.
TCS (down 2.91%), ITC (down 1.95%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.94%), Reliance Industries (down 1.91%) and Coal India (down 1.74%) were the major Sensex losers.
ONGC (up 1.48%), Tata Motors (up 1.18%), Axis Bank (up 0.88%), NTPC (up 0.48%) and Vedanta (up 0.37%) were the major Sensex gainers.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shed 0.24%. L&T announced that L&T Construction has won a mega contract for design and construction of a major airport. L&T Construction is a brand of L&T. The announcement was made during market hours today, 18 February 2019.
Yes Bank fell 2.54%. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reprimanded Yes Bank for selectively revealing a confidential report by the regulator that led to a surge in the lender's shares on Thursday, calling the disclosure a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Yes Bank said that it received a letter from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stating that as the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) report was marked "confidential", it was expected that no part of the report and information contained therein be divulged except for the information in the form and manner of disclosure prescribed by Regulations. Therefore, the Press Release breaches confidentiality and violates regulatory guidelines. Moreover, NIL divergence is not an achievement to be published and is only compliance with the extant Income Recognition and Asset Classification norms. The RAR also identifies several other lapses and regulatory breaches in various areas of the Bank's functioning and the disclosure of just one part of the RAR is viewed by RBI as a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. The issuance of the press release has, therefore, been viewed seriously by the RBI and could entail further regulatory action.
IndusInd Bank rose 0.47%. The bank said it inaugurated two branches in Kolkata. One of the two branches is located in the posta Bazar area of the city, while the other is situated on Sarat Bose Road. Both braches house an ATM each that will be operational 24X7. With this, the bank now has a wide network of 60 branches across West Bengal.
Tech Mahindra rose 0.36% after the company scheduled a board meeting on 21 February 2019 to consider a proposal to buy-back equity shares of the company. The announcement was made on Saturday, 16 February 2019.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories rose 0.51%. The company said that the company received a written communication from the US FDA, about the issuance of Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) for FTO VII, its formulations manufacturing facility at Duvvada, Visakhapatnam. This site was included in the warning letter received from US FDA in November, 2015. Subsequently, the site was audited by US FDA in March 2017 for which the company received EIR in November 2017, wherein the site's status remained unchanged. The site was again audited in October 2018. Based on the company's responses and follow up actions, the US FDA has concluded that this inspection is "closed" and has determined the inspection classification of this facility as Voluntary Action Initiated (VAI). The announcement was made on Saturday, 16 February 2019.
Jindal Steel & Power rose 1.05% after the company announced securing additional order from Indian Railways for 30,000 Tonnes Long Rails. The announcement was made during market hours today, 18 February 2019.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 71.3650, compared with closing of 71.23 during the previous trading session.
In global commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures edged lower. Brent for January 2019 settlement was off 17 cents at $66.08 a barrel.
On the economic front, India's merchandise exports rose 3.7% to $26.36 billion in January 2019 over a year ago. Meanwhile, merchandise imports was flat at $41.09 billion. The trade deficit for January 2019 was at $14.73 billion as against the deficit of $15.67 billion in January 2018.
Overseas, European shares were mixed as investors continued to monitor trade talks between the world's two largest economies. Asian shares edged higher on Monday, with trade talks between the US and China set to continue in Washington this week after high-level meetings in Beijing concluded on Friday.
US stock indices surged on Friday, 15 February 2019, buoyed by growing optimism that the US and China can strike a trade truce ahead of the March 1 deadline. US stock market will be closed on Monday in observance of the Presidents Day holiday.
In political news, tensions rose in Washington D.C. when President Donald Trump declared a national emergency citing a humanitarian crisis at the Southern Border. In economic news, the Empire State manufacturing index rose 4.9 points in February to 8.8 and industrial production fell 0.6% in January, the first decline in eight months.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
